PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
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http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
PHOTO CAPTION P-48040
November 12, 1996
This image shows two views of the trailing hemisphere of Jupiter's
ice-covered satellite, Europa. The left image shows the approximate natural
color appearance of Europa. The image on the right is a false-color
composite version combining violet, green and infrared images to enhance
color differences in the predominantly water-ice crust of Europa. Dark brown
areas represent rocky material derived from the interior, implanted by
impact, or from a combination of interior and exterior sources. Bright
plains in the polar areas (top and bottom) are shown in tones of blue to
distinguish possibly coarse-grained ice (dark blue) from fine-grained ice
(light blue). Long, dark lines are fractures in the crust, some of which are
more than 3,000 kilometers (1,850 miles) long. The bright feature containing
a central dark spot in the lower third of the image is a young impact crater
some 50 kilometers (31 miles) in diameter. This crater has been
provisionally named 'Pwyll' for the Celtic god of the underworld.
Europa is about 3,160 kilometers (1,950 miles) in diameter, or about the
size of Earth's moon. This image was taken on September 7, 1996, at a range
of 677,000 kilometers (417,900 miles) by the solid state imaging television
camera onboard the Galileo spacecraft during its second orbit around
Jupiter. The image was processed by Deutsche Forschungsanstalt fuer Luft-
und Raumfahrt e.V., Berlin, Germany.
Launched in October 1989, Galileo entered orbit around Jupiter on December
7, 1995. The spacecraft's mission is to conduct detailed studies of the
giant planet, its largest moons and the Jovian magnetic environment. The Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA manages the mission for NASA's Office of
Space Science, Washington, DC.